Safety Hazards, From Fires to Natural Disasters

¶ … safety hazards, from fires to natural disasters and I think we can view violence as another one after things like Sandy Hook. I know the buildings in the area sometimes need to be modified to withstand the natural disasters, and there are stringent fire codes as well. Things like asbestos would have been replaced by newer flame retardants. The violence issue has not really been dealt with. I'm not sure what the best solution here is, and I think that the school administrators are unsure as well. Journal 3.

I grew up in a multicultural community and we took learning about other cultures as second nature. I cannot think of a better approach. Health and safety have nothing to do with culture -- these are universal. Nutrition is a little different because kids eat so differently at home in different cultures. I had a Japanese friend and learned about sushi. When discussing nutrition in school, teachers definitely need to take into account that people from different cultures eat different things.

You simply cannot talk about Western foods only to a multicultural audience, because it lacks relevance. The same can be said for other lessons as well -- you have to find time to make lessons relevant to the different kids in the class. Teach a little bit of their history and culture, so that everybody has a better understanding. Page 2 Journal 4. Nutrition is important at all ages, but especially at young age.

So much of a child's growth occurs early, and it is at the younger ages when nutrition can have its greatest impact on how strong the child's body and mind are. Further, there is evidence to suggest that childhood obesity is very hard to reverse later in life (Ebbeling, Pawlak and Ludwig, 2002). Food allergies are a different matter. There are a few important ones to bear in mind, but those children and their parents have a responsibility to ensure that the school is aware of the allergy.

It is important to know about these things so that we can help keep children safe. Journal 5. There are a lot of great snacks. The Internet is full of snack ideas, and I would change the snacks frequently so that kids have exposure to lots of food and do not get bored. Dried fruits and nuts are wonderful. Fresh fruit makes for a good snack. There are some wonderful crackers and crispbreads -- not the industrial things like Ritz but more natural, organic things.

Indeed, the best snacks are natural, not chemical, and that is more important than fussing about individual snacks. Some veggies are good snacks as well. Worth considering that I do near fear sugar, for example, as a snack. It simply needs to be taken in balance and context. The problem comes when sugar comes with fats, and in large quantities.

And it is never too early for children to develop good taste, for things like high quality dark chocolate and good cheese (not string cheese or Kraft slices or any of that processed junk). Even with chips there are healthy options like kale chips or whole grain chips that are better than the normal junk food chips. We also need to remember about beverages -- natural fruit juices only, and water. No soda, not even diet. I cannot worry about generic "allergies," but only about specific and known allergies.

That one child might be allergic to peanuts does not have relevance to another child who does not, and this does not affect all nuts either. Designing snacks in a fear-based environment is futile. When an allergy is known I will avoid such foods for snacks. Journal.